President William Ruto after the launch of 2025 Great Wildebeest Migration in the Maasai Mara, Narok, on July 24, 2025. [PCS] Good morning, Mheshimiwa Kabando wa Kabando aka KK. Let me say I like your candour when you go on national TV, as you did this week, to debate the state of the nation. While I’m not at liberty to repeat the pronouncements that you made on TV 47—not because of self-censorship, but because I can’t match your eloquence—I was touched by your deep conviction that no one could stop you from saying your piece. Even when the show’s host…
Author: By Peter Kimani
When ODM Leader Raila Odinga addressed the media over Saba Saba protests at Serena Hotel in Nairobi on July 7, 2025. [Boniface Okendo, Standard] The gang of men behind him said it all: Raila Odinga aka Baba, the former doyen of Opposition now running a recruitment bureau, primarily consulting for Kenya Kwanza government, appeared insecure. He needed sufficient numbers to back him up to get his message across: Kenyans, he said, needed a multigenerational, nationwide conversation. What about, he did not specify. Neither did Baba reveal why he felt the need to convene this national conversation, after he and Prezzo…
Razor wire along Parliament road during the Gen anniversary protests in Nairobi, on June 25, 2025. [Elvis Ogina, Standard] The Nairobi County Woman Representative Esther Passaris has tabled a path-breaking Bill that seeks to entrench political freedoms in our country by opening special spaces for picketing and protests. Those seeking to protest about bad roads in their neighbourhoods, for instance, will have no right to barricade the road and wave twigs. They would have to travel to designated protest zones within the green city in the sun. The idea is simple, even though some disrespectful men are claiming that the…
One of the protestors wearing a police helmet after it was snatched from a police officer during protests over the killing of blogger Albert Ojwang. [Collins Kweyu, Standard] This morning, barring prospects of goons patrolling city streets, all roads lead to Taifa Hall at the University of Nairobi (UoN), where a long-awaited celebration of the life and work of Mwalimu Ngugi wa Thiong’o, will be hosted. The day-long fete, which is free and open to the public will feature films, performance, readings, tributes and panels in honour of the nation’s pioneering and one of Africa and the world’s most celebrated…
Mugithi star Samuel Muchoki aka Samidoh. [Photo/Courtesy] ‘Mugithi’ star Samuel Muchoki, aka Samidoh, is wanted “dead or alive”, according to hysterical notices I’ve seen from his employer, the National Police Service (NPS), allegedly for absconding duty. They also declared to the world that his salary has been suspended, so I suspect they’ll inform Kenyans when it is restored. I wonder why they were telling us all this—if not to embarrass him—but I doubt that Samidoh is going to suffer pecuniary embarrassment. I don’t know what stopped them from disclosing his income level as well. Anyhow, the energy expended on the…
Taking of finger prints for identification of person at the Issuance of Duplicate National Identity card Huduma GPO centre on 03/11/2022 [File, Standard] I have had occasion to seek government services in recent weeks and I am delighted to say things seem to be working, even when the nation seems to be in a state of paralysis. My last port of call was the Westlands DC’s office, where I took the eldest man of the house to secure a national ID, now that he’s come of age. A gentleman called Kamau was very helpful, as were other attendants whose names…
Veteran author Prof Ngugi wa Thiong’o at the Sarova Stanley Hotel when he pupularised his new book in Gikuyu Kenda Muiyuru PUBLISHED by the East Africa Educational Publishers. [FILE] Prof Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Kenya and Africa’s towering man of letters who has died at the age of 87, evolved from a mythical figure of my youth to become a close mentor whose friendship lasted to the last few hours of his life. Our phone conversation last Sunday, only 72 hours before his death, was a regular feature in recent years, precipitated by his quest for clarity on the dramatic events unfolding in his beloved country,…
MSMEs Principal Secretary Susan Mang’eni says that millions of hustlers have defaulted on payment of Sh6 billion. [File, Standard] I fully associate with the regular sentiments from Prezzo Bill Ruto that his government’s main failure is its inability to communicate its successes. As the Principal Secretary for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises Development—honestly, I had no idea we have such a ministry, but then, there is so much that I don’t know—Susan Mang’eni reported that millions of hustlers had defaulted on payment of some Sh6 billion. And it’s been so long ago, enyewe, it feels like the KK government has…
Soundtrack To a Coup D’etat poster. [Courtesy/Amazon] Congo has been on my mind this week. First, I went to the barber, which is rare. He’s Congolese, as was his predecessor, Richard, who has since migrated to the Yues. I also had a chance encounter with another DRC national, a petite young woman who sold plastic phone screen covers. She did not state her name and I did not enquire, especially when I realised she could barely express herself in Kiswahili. And when I made my payment, it reflected a Kenyan man’s name. DRC has also been on my mind since…
Members of the M23 armed group sit on a pickup truck during a patrol as women carrying fruits walk past a market, following the takeover of the city by the M23 movement in Bukavu on February 18, 2025. [AFP] Congo has been on my mind this week. First, I went to the barber, which is rare. He’s Congolese, as was his predecessor, Richard, who has since migrated to the Yues. I also had a chance encounter with another DRC national, a petite young woman who sold plastic phone screen covers. She did not state her name and I did not…
Professor Makau Mutua addressing the media at a press conference held at Nyayo Stadium on June 4, 2022. [File, standard] My heart goes out to Makau Mutua, a distinguished professor at a fancy university in the Yues, who was trolled in the latter part of the week for joining Prezzo Bill Ruto’s discredited kafment as an advisor for this and that. Many Kenyans are appalled that the good prof, who writes kizungu mingi every Sunday under the mantra of “Crystal Ball,” in which he analyses local politics with predictive rigour, did not anticipate his own future working for the Zakayo administration! On the contrary, he dedicated acres of space to chastise the very…
Job seekers from Nyanza region flock NITA offices grounds in Kisumu to try their lack for overseas jobs in an event presided by CS Ministry of labour and Social protection Alfred Mutua. [Michael Mute, Standard] Some distraught Kenyans have been sharing distressing stories about their botched job searches in the UAE, where they were deported as soon as they landed. Reason, a purported government-to-government deal, proved to be a hoax. This is not to diminish their pain, or to excuse those who scammed them, but one has to ask: What did they expect? I mean, who, seriously, trusts anything said by…
The Kenya Kwanza policy of using poverty as a tool of governance—which is why the focus has been on taxing Kenyans to death, and stealing the cash—has been hugely successful. But reports of our young citizens selling their body parts to elderly Europeans and other nationalities hit a new, deep chord of desperation. Understandably, government agencies that could have stopped these crimes looked the other way as the youths, some as young as 22, were wheeled into a facility in Eldoret to have their kidneys cut off for as little as Sh300,000. Most said they had been promised much more,…
The National Assembly during a special sitting on January 16, 2025. [File, Standard] Folks, belated Easter wishes! I left town rather prematurely because I couldn’t stand the din generated by politicians over the Constituency Development Fund (CDF), which they claimed hadn’t been released on schedule, hampering their work and jeorpardising their prospects for re-election. That’s pretty asinine, if you ask me, for as Raila Odinga aka Baba, the former doyen of opposition now a government insider from outside has been reminding, the work of MPs (who my friend Bonnie Mwangi christened MPigs) is to make laws, not provide social services…
Former Kakamega Senator Cleophas Malala blocked from accessing Butere Girls students who are set to perform their controversial play titled ‘ Echoes of War’ on April 9, 2025. [Joseph Kipsang, Standard] Because so few Kenyans have had a chance to watch ‘Echoes of War’ by Cleophas Malala, after its staging was sanctioned before the High Court torpedoed that decision and policemen tear-gassed students in rehearsal in Nakuru, we run the risk of inventing what the play is, and what it is not about. That’s the nature of drama, especially Kenyan drama, as the joy is in the re-telling and the attendant…
President William Ruto addresses residents in Engineer town, Nyandarua county, during Mt Kenya region tour, on April 3, 2025. [Kipsang Joseph, Standard] Never mind the smoke and mirrors—smoke from the teargas lobbed at the Butere Girls students in their performance at the ongoing national drama festivals in Nakuru— and the mirrors evoked by politician-cum-playwright, Cleophas Malala. The performances of the year were delivered elsewhere around Mt Kenya, and Nairobi. Start with the former, and the sight of hundreds of boda boda riders racing against time to get to the next destination in Prezzo Bill Ruto’s recent forays in “Murima” region.…
Assistant Registrar of Marriages and senior state counsel Office of Attorney General Loyce Bett demonstrates the online registration of marriage service at Sheria House, Nairobi. [File, Standard] I took a walk in the city this week, a rarity, I must admit, and even rarer, using Parliament Road. There is something that induces anxiety on that road, since it was declared a den of thieves. I passed there because I hoped to catch a glimpse of the female MPs who twangad each other out in the open earlier in the week. I stopped at a street corner to look. I was…
Were there not too many people bearing witness, one would be hard pressed to believe that I saw a mid-sized roach jump out of the menu booklet at a five-star hotel in the city. I acknowledge these are hard times, when anything and everything could be dismissed as “fake,” so I am not taking this narrative lightly. But the roach was real, resplendent in its brown hues, with a belly that had a hint of cream to reveal it was well fed. I have several inferences to make about this strange find. One, it could that there is an over-population…
President William Ruto addresses residents in Engineer town, Nyandarua county, during his Mt Kenya region tour, on April 3, 2025. [Kipsang Joseph, Standard] Let me declare upfront that the lengthy monologue produced by Prezzo Bill Ruto on Monday night to kick-start his tour of Mount Kenya was an April Fool’s day stunt. Within that context, I will not call him out for misstating facts like Kenyan tea is being sold to Sudan, because it is not, since his government allowed Rapid Support Force (RSF) genocidaires to operate from Nairobi. Neither will I seek to establish the veracity of his claims…
President William Ruto at Ngarachi Comprehensive School in Laikipia West during the beginning of his tour of the Mt. Kenya region on April 1, 2025. [Kipsang Joseph, Standard] I’d like to fully associate with Prezzo Bill Ruto’s idea that he should change his Cabinet as often as he changes his clothes. After all, only he has the power to hire — and rarely fire — but recirculate incompetent officials to other government agencies where skill deficits will not be too obvious to a discerning public. I’d like to encourage him to think of Cabinet appointments as gigs, renewable after every…
Hassan Musyoka, a pump operator at the River Athi intake where water is drawn for treatment at Kangu Kangu water treatment plant. [Philip Muasya, Standard] Some idiots have been dumping chemical waste into the Athi River, and fishermen who rely on the river to supply them with food, and farmers who subsist by cultivating farms along its banks are counting their losses. It’s not just about lost livelihoods, but death of an entire ecosystem. Fishes of the water, the best barometer of the quality of the water have been floating lifeless along the stretches of the river to infer the…